fat girlfriend said:
TCTTS said:
There's a difference between saying "Kirk's assassin was likely MAGA" - vs - "MAGA spent all weekend trying to blame fifty percent of the country for the actions of one crazed *******." .
That's total bull**** spin, and not what he said. He said "We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them."
That's Kimmel trying to blame 50% of the country for the murder of Charlie Kirk.
And this wasn't isolated. Lawrence Tribe tweeted that the shooter was MAGA, Heather Cox Richardson posted that the shooter was MAGA, even elected officials in the Democratic Party tweeted that the shooter was "a straight white male from a Republican, Trump voting family."
It was gaslighting. Anything short of admitting as much is spin.
(And I've never voted for Trump).
It's not "total bull*****"
It's basic reading comprehension combined with an ability to recognize obvious context clues, along with a simple understanding of how the English language works.
First of all, the subject of Kimmel's sentence/sentiment is "the MAGA gang." It's not the shooter, who is the object/target of their characterization. Thus, Kimmel's implication is that the MAGA machinery (media, talking heads, podcasters, spokespersons, etc) acted reflexively - not waiting for facts - to shape the narrative in their favor, in a way that grossly and unfairly painted half the country as having blood on their hands.
This is obvious because the second clause ("desperately trying to characterize this kid") underscores that Kimmel's quote is about opportunism in response to a tragedy, rather than an evidence-based claim about the shooter, at the time "(i.e. "over the weekend"). Thus, Kimmel's rhetorical target was obviously the
behavior of those who rushed to categorize the assassination, not a definitive statement about the shooter's political allegiance.
Yes, there's ambiguity there that unfortunately left room for attack, which is one of the problems I have with it. Otherwise, basic common sense tells you exactly what Kimmel meant.
I know that nuance is really, really hard for some of you who so desperately want to live in a black-and-white, good-vs-evil world, and find your identities in raging against that "evil" on the internet. But that's simply not the world we live in, and Kimmel simply didn't say what so you clearly wish he had.
